Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Betheas honored for tradition of wrestling and hard-work

bethea.jpg

Alex and Gloria Bethea, parents of Maaziah Bethea, are presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mercer County high school wrestling championships. Some of the Bethea brothers were there to take in the moment.
(Kristen Vaughn/For The Times)

When Trenton High senior Maaziah Bethea was just 7 years old, he woke himself up every morning at 5 a.m. to ride his bike through the city of Trenton and deliver The Times to fellow city residents.

It was family tradition.

All eight of his older siblings had done the same when they were younger at the behest of their parents, Alex and Gloria, who told them that they would have to purchase their own material items should they desire such things.

Maaziah’s parents never once bought him a cell phone or video game. If he wanted something, he would have to work his paper route and earn it himself.

Such lessons have reverberated throughout the Bethea household in West Trenton for 30 years, and are the reason why all nine children will have graduated high school come June, with four of them moving on to become Ivy Leaguers and study at the University of Pennsylvania.

Maaziah could become the fifth next fall, as he has verbally committed to the school.

But before he and his siblings were delivering newspapers, there was another, more passionate family tradition that took hold of the Betheas: the sport of wrestling.

Maaziah Bethea was the last of the most prolific wrestling family in Mercer County history to grace the mats of the Mercer County Tournament last night at Robbinsville High. He became only the seventh wrestler to win four county championships after pinning his way to the title.

After his bout, Maaziah Bethea’s parents — with family members at their sides — were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for their contributions to Mercer County wrestling. The family received a standing ovation from the full house.

He is currently ranked third in the state at 152 pounds by The Star-Ledger and is expected to contend for the state title.

But this story starts well before Maaziah’s final win at the MCTs, before his fifth-place finish in the state tournament last year, and before his six other wrestling brothers showed him how it was done.

More than 30 years ago, his parents began the highly esteemed Bethea family.
When they had their first child, Isaac, the couple saw it as nothing short of a miracle.
Alex says Gloria “took to that like white on rice.”

Another son, Aaron came, then their first daughter, Rebecca. And it didn’t stop there.
Along came Naaman, another daughter Hannah, as well as Jaaziah, Canaan, Raamiah, and finally Maaziah.

“She (Gloria) was the teacher and vice principal, and I was the principal and superintendent,” Alex said. “She was from academia and knew how to put the puzzle pieces together, and I was the athlete that knew about hard work. It takes two good parents working hand-in-hand.”

‘A culture shock’

All seven of his sons took to wrestling, but since they were being homeschooled, they wouldn’t be allowed to compete for Trenton Central. So he and his wife decided to enroll them at the high school.

“In the early ’90s, the graduation rate at the high school plummeted, and that was a serious indicator that the city was in trouble,” Gloria said.

“But we believed that if a person wants an education, they’re going to get one regardless of what school they go to.”

To Canaan, the third-youngest son, public school was a different world.

“It was a culture shock,” Canaan said. “Other kids were cutting class or disrespecting teachers or doing drugs. My parents taught us that there is only one way to behave, and that’s respectfully. We didn’t understand how other people could act disrespectfully.

“But it wasn’t hard to avoid all of that, because I knew who I was. My older siblings had already gone to Penn, and even as a freshman I knew I was an Ivy League student.”

Raamiah, the second youngest, had the foundation he needed.

“My dad taught us street smarts, and my mom taught us book smarts, so we were prepared,” he said.

Not surprisingly, they all excelled at sports.

Isaac and Aaron both went on to compete in the Ivy League at Penn, and the family has racked up a total of 19 Mercer County Tournament wrestling titles since.

But something was missing.

“I started wrestling too late, and I was never able to compete for a high school state championship,” Alex said.

“I wanted one of them to win one so badly. Physically, I knew they were capable of doing it. I wanted to see how far they could go.”

In 2010, Canaan made it all the way to the state finals with a 32-0 record as a senior.
“I thought we had a shot at it,” Alex said of his son Canaan winning the state title.

“But he came up short, losing 8-3. That was a sore that hurt all of us for two years. It hurt his little brother Raamiah a lot, too.”
Keeping a promise

Raamiah is two years younger than his older brother and role model, Canaan.

“I’m the little brother, so I thought he couldn’t be beat,” Raamiah said. “To see him lose that match after watching him work so hard every day was tough. But it was the greatest motivation I’ve ever had.”

Raamiah had already promised his father during his freshman year that he would win him a state championship. Now, it was time to redeem his brother’s loss and make good on his word.

“He wrote out and visualized his goals and worked at his plan seven days a week,” Gloria said.

“He identified possible distractions and planned out how to avoid them. It was inspiring to see him work that hard.”

Two years later, it was Raamiah in a familiar situation. He was undefeated as a senior heading into the state finals with all of his family on hand at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. And he would face an opponent that had caught him with a move and pinned him in the state tournament his freshman year.

But after trailing early, Raamiah took an 8-6 lead and held on for dear life as his opponent attempted the same move that he pinned him with in the first meeting.
This time, Raamiah thwarted the attempt and put his adversary to his back, flipping the script and pinning him to win the state championship.

The Bethea family leapt over the arena railings and mobbed their star, sharing a family moment that was decades in the making.

“It was exhilarating,” Gloria said. “He had the whole family’s interests, and goals, and hopes at heart. He shared it with his siblings.”

Particularly with Canaan.

“It was the happiest moment of my life,” Canaan said.

“Ever since we were little, we made a pact that we would win state titles. Going back and seeing my little brother finally do it — it was like I was out there, like it was me winning it.”

His father Alex was pretty proud, too.

“When he pulled that thing off, it took me to another level,” he said. “It had me in tears. I wanted a state champ to come from a school that doesn’t get much recognition and be able to say ‘See? We have kids that can go to Trenton High, that can be state champs and can go to the Ivy League.’”

If that wasn’t enough, Raamiah also later became the Valedictorian of his class. But it all starts with the parents.

High expectations met
“Children inherently want to please their parents,” Gloria said. “So it depends where you set the bar. Usually children will come to wherever the bar is raised.”

Raamiah, who is now a sophomore starter on the Penn wrestling team, echoed those statements.

“They raised us to be solely committed and fully invested in excellence and high achievement,” Raamiah said.

“There were always expectations. We seemed to rise up and meet those expectations.”
Wrestling has also certainly helped shape the Bethea family since the days of delivering newspapers.

“We would deliver newspapers through the snow and rain,” Canaan said.

“If you didn’t get the newspaper to customers, then they couldn’t read it. Like wrestling, we learned how to figure out the steps in between and reach the end goal.”

His mother took a liking to the sport early on.

“I’m always the loudest cheerleader in the room,” she said.

“Wrestling is very clear to the wrestler — achievement is all his responsibility. We taught our children responsibility at a very early age.”

“A very doable arrangement is setting up the high school students with an activity period at school during which they can choose their own activity of interest and interact with adults and peers that share common interests,” he said. “I believe it’s very important for young people to have a connection with adults.”

Raamiah is hopeful as well.

“What I know is that the potential is there,” he said. “We’ve exemplified that, but there are others out there with similar talent in our city. However hard you work, your results will show. We want people here to know that, through hard work, all things are possible.”

You can bet the whole family will be supporting young Maaziah when he works toward the possibility of becoming just the third wrestler in Mercer County history to win a state championship in March.